Kiran Upadhyay

Icons don’t take up much space. The little 16×16 (up to 256×256) graphics though, grab our attention. How many times have you judged a software or web app, just by looking at its icons? Originally meant to make computers easier for newbies to understand, icons now occupy all the spaces where you care to look. As operating systems develop, icon development gallops along with them. From 16 color icons to 32-bit images with alpha transparency, we have come a long way. When you think of customizing your computer, changing and tweaking the icons that originally came with it, are on top of the task list. Where do you go for a spot of icon hunting? Thankfully, there are a huge number of resources. Check out our archives for posts tagged with icons and you will get some more. And in case your still aren’t satisfied, here are 8 of the best free icons search engines to take the search further. After all, if everything else can have a search engine, icons deserve a few of their own… FindI

“Wow! How did you do that?”, my friend asked me with amazement, when he looked at how I scroll up and down the webpage using my two fingers. “Can my laptop do that?” he asked. He was a bit disappointed when I explained that as far as I know, the feature is Mac-specific because Apple owns the patent to that multi-touch technology. But my friend’s question made me think. Is it really Mac specific? So I did some searching and found an unexpected answer. It turns out that some of the latest non-Mac laptops have similar features built in, and as for the older ones – as long as they use a Synaptic touchpad, you can easily add two finger scrolling using a little help from a little application called, well, Two-Finger-Scroll . Using the Two Finger Scroll The latest version of this tiny little app – version 1.0.6 – can be downloaded in the blink of an eye because its size is only around 290KB. The Two Finger Scroll app could work out of the box without the need to install it. But before r

For those that aren’t in the know, the browser based “IDE” is an abbreviation of I ntegrated D evelopment E nvironment. Very simply said, it’s an application that can be used to write code, but usually with added compiler/interpreter, debugging and automation features. Finding a decent freeware code writing application (view previous code-editor compilations for Windows or Mac ), never mind an IDE, can prove difficult. Some operating systems have it harder than others, and if you use more than one, or are on the move a lot, coding can be a bastard. Hence it pays to code in the cloud. By elevating your coding platform to an online environment, you not only rid yourself of OS issues but even of hardware independence. No matter where you find yourself, you can always access all your files with the same IDE. Here’s Why You Want An Online IDE If the aforementioned motivation of increased portability and accessibility wasn’t enough, here’s something else to think about. With your codi

Does it feel like your desktop wallpaper is starting to peel off? Can you no longer see that green grass pasture? Sounds like it’s time for some desktop freshness! One of my secret joys is to browse for beautiful wallpapers online. I raid all kinds of sources off the beaten track. The image to the left for example is from stock.xchng , a site I often visit for my imaging needs. One particularly interesting wallpaper category is three dimensional (3D) desktop backgrounds. Below, I have compiled 9 fascinating and cool 3D backgrounds for computers in no particular order. At World’s Edge (Winter) via Digital Blasphemy Digital Blasphemy has turned into a commercial service. However, this wallpaper is one of their free samples of 3D backgrounds for computers. If you frequently browse wallpaper sites, you will discover a lot of work from Digital Blasphemy. Resolutions: 1280 x 1024, 1600 x 1200, 1680 x 1050, and several more for mobile phones. 3D Graphics Cube via 4wallpapers When y

There are numerous reasons you might want to design a custom image featuring your name or that of your website, product or service. Maybe you’re doing a re-design of your website or just want a new image for Facebook. The ‘professional’ option would be to get to grips with Photoshop and spend your time setting up the various variables to get your logo or name looking just right. Not to mention having to download new fonts and effects to create the image. Well CoolText, a free online graphics generator, allows you to create thousands upon thousands of different text images, logos and even buttons to form your own cool name designs. Their main service, and the one most relevant to this article, is the Text/Logo service which enables you to choose from hundreds of logo styles and subsequently thousands of different fonts. The first step in creating cool name designs or logos is selecting what style you want. Note that the colours, fonts and sizes can be altered later. This is merel

One of the great features of digital photography is the ability to convert color images to black-and-white, or what some photographers call monochrome conversion. There’s little or no need to shoot digital photos in black-and-white when color images can easily be converted to black-and-white in Photoshop or a similar image editor. In this article, I’ll offer some black and white photography tips for Photoshop users. So why would you want to convert an image to black-and-white? Well it’s pretty much an aesthetic decision. For me, I might convert to black-and-white because it conveys the mood of the subject I‘m shooting. This is the case for the image I use in this tutorial. Other times, the colors in an image simply might conflict with one another and distract from the focus of the image, so converting to black-and-white gets rid of the distracting color conflicts. In some images, black-and-white conversion just has more aesthetic appeal. There’s no rule or equation you can apply to

One of the great features of digital photography is the ability to convert color images to black-and-white, or what some photographers call monochrome conversion. There’s little or no need to shoot digital photos in black-and-white when color images can easily be converted to black-and-white in Photoshop or a similar image editor. In this article, I’ll offer some black and white photography tips for Photoshop users. So why would you want to convert an image to black-and-white? Well it’s pretty much an aesthetic decision. For me, I might convert to black-and-white because it conveys the mood of the subject I‘m shooting. This is the case for the image I use in this tutorial. Other times, the colors in an image simply might conflict with one another and distract from the focus of the image, so converting to black-and-white gets rid of the distracting color conflicts. In some images, black-and-white conversion just has more aesthetic appeal. There’s no rule or equation you can apply to